BILLIONAIRE Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has yet to renew his UK visa, it has emerged.

The Russian – who missed seeing his team beat Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup final on Saturday – is “facing delays” in the renewals process after it expired last month, the Financial Times reported.

The revelation comes after previous stories by the Daily Express stating that Mr Abramovich and Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov could face extra Home Office scrutiny as part of a crackdown on high-profile Russians who back Vladimir Putin’s regime.

There is nothing to suggest either man has done anything wrong.

Mr Abramovich’s visa application is said to be taking longer than usual. According to sources, he is thought to have returned to Russia.

Mr Abramovich, who made his fortune in oil and gas in the 1990s, is one of Russia’s best known businessmen.

The Sunday Times recently named him as Britain’s 13th richest man, with a net worth of £9.3billion.

Mr Abramovich has been a London resident since he bought Chelsea from former chairman Ken Bates in 2003.

But he spends a lot of time in Moscow so it is not unusual for him to miss games at the club.

The billionaire has come to symbolise the rich Russians who have made the UK their home since the fall of the Iron Curtain and Communist rule.

Since the attack on the Skripals – who have both now been released from hospital and are under British protection – there has been increased political tension between Russia and the West.

After the Salisbury attack, Mrs May told MPs that the Kremlin had a long record of carrying out state-sponsored assassinations and insisted that it viewed some former intelligence officers as legitimate targets.

She said: “We have information indicating that within the last decade, Russia has investigated ways of delivering nerve agents, probably for assassination, and as part of this programme has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichok. Clearly, that is in contravention of the chemical weapons convention.”

Mrs May said Mr Putin and his supporters would face tough measures in response to the attack.

There have also been suggestions that property in the UK owned by Putin supporters could be confiscated.

GETTY

Theresa May has been adamant against Russian incursion following the Salisbury attacks

The Russian ‘billionaire from nowhere’

When researching my biography of Roman Abramovich shortly after he bought Chelsea FC in 2003, I asked one well-placed Moscow businessman why a Russian oligarch would buy a British football club.

His answer came as a surprise. He said it was because the acquisition amounted to “the cheapest insurance policy in history”.

Overnight, Abramovich – whom I dubbed “the billionaire from nowhere” – became a household name in Britain and earned the devotion of thousands of Blues fans for splashing out millions on “marquee” players who would attract others.

So if the Kremlin moved against him it could be sure it would create headlines around the world and Downing Street would be all the more inclined to grant him asylum.

At the time, all Russian billionaires lived in fear. Abramovich’s former partner Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, another tycoon, had already fled after falling out with President Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the country’s richest man, had been jailed. The Chelsea owner responded with a low profile and cosying up to Putin, whom he calls “Vlod”.

But in safeguarding himself in his homeland, Abramovich may have compromised his standing here.

Dominic Midgley is co-author of Abramovich, The Billionaire From Nowhere